Neil Price, Allen Lane (UK)Basic Books (US), out 13 October
The first thing to understand about the Vikings is that the people we label Vikings never called themselves by that name; it wasn鈥檛 their ethnic identity in the way 鈥淩oman鈥� or 鈥淧uerto Rican鈥� has been. The Old Norse word 惫铆办颈苍驳谤 probably meant something like 鈥減irate鈥�, explains Neil Price on page 2 of his richly informative new book, The Sea-King and the Sorceress: Life and death in the Viking Age. It described a job or activity 鈥渢hat could be taken up or left off at different times in a life鈥�.
During the Viking Age, roughly AD 750-1050, most Scandinavians were farmers: they 鈥渘ever went anywhere or did much harm to anyone鈥�. The word 鈥淰iking鈥� is a label that was applied to the Norse peoples of Scandinavia by others 鈥� specifically, by western European writers in the 1800s, centuries after the phenomenon had ended.
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From the start, these reports of Viking activity were tinged with political agendas. Early accounts were viewed through a 鈥渄istorting lens of racialized imperialism鈥�, Price writes. These Vikings were seen as the ancestors of modern Europeans, whose thrusting and conquering ways helped to build modern civilisation.
Many writers have had 鈥渁n ideological crush on the Vikings鈥�, writes Price: you can see it in the ideology and imagery of the Nazis and in the modern white supremacy movement.
To understand the Norse, we must begin by rejecting any notion of a monolithic Norse culture
Price is an in Sweden, where he studies the Viking Age. His debut book was published to general acclaim in 2020. He subsequently worked as a historical consultant for the 2022 film The Northman, which inspired him to write about 鈥渁 past that did not care in the slightest what we think of it鈥�.
In The Sea-King and the Sorceress, his second book, Price tries to help us see the Norse people, and their practice of going a-viking, through new eyes. He does so by describing 21 burials, spanning four centuries and a wide geographical area. Each is given a title, like 鈥渢he sea-king鈥�, 鈥渢he shapeshifter鈥� and 鈥渢he matriarch鈥�.
The aim is to show the variety of lives that were being lived, and how they changed over the centuries. If we want to understand the Norse, Price writes, 鈥渨e must begin by rejecting any notion of a monolithic Norse culture鈥�. He certainly succeeds at showcasing the rich diversity of the Norse world: we meet not just warriors but also traders, farmers, nomads and slaves.
However, your mileage may vary on the book鈥檚 episodic structure. There is no overall narrative 鈥� the burials are arranged roughly chronologically, but that is all. As a result, I found the book a bit of a struggle to read all the way through. Readers may get a better experience by dipping in and out, a chapter or two at a time.
Price begins with the Salme ship burials on Saaremaa Island in present-day Estonia. Discovered by accident in 2008, two boats had been buried about 100 metres from the sea, one of them containing eight men and the other 34. Alongside their bodies were joints of meat, tools and playing pieces from strategy games. Four brothers, identified as such using preserved DNA, were laid side by side. Price argues that the dead men were probably 鈥渢he remains of a raid or a war party鈥� these men were casualties buried by their friends鈥�. Molecular evidence suggests most of them were from the M盲laren valley in what is now Sweden.
This, then, is the earliest archaeological evidence we have of a Viking raiding party. Dated to around AD 750, it is nearly half a century before the AD 793 attack on Lindisfarne Abbey in England, which early accounts pinpointed as the start of the Viking Age. Right from the start, Price is tweaking our narratives about the Norse.
Further revisions come in chapter 4. 鈥淭he 鈥榮hield-maiden鈥� 鈥� describes a burial from around AD 950. A tall person was buried, 鈥渁rmed to the teeth鈥� as Price puts it, with a sword, knife, war-axe, bow, two lances and shield. When first excavated in 1878, this person was identified as a male warrior. Analyses in the 1970s strongly suggested that they were female, but this went unremarked. It took until the 2010s, and specifically a of preserved DNA published in 2017 (on which Price worked), to establish that this person was, in fact, female.
This finding prompted a storm of comment, which Price addresses with admirable nuance. Archaeologists pointed out that one can鈥檛 assume a person鈥檚 profession based on how they were buried. This is true, but, as Price remarks, 鈥渘one of these 鈥榩roblems鈥� were ever raised in connection with this grave for the century and more that it was assumed to be the burial of a man鈥�.
However, Price is also not keen on the idea of this woman as a 鈥渒ickass feminist role model鈥�. As he points out, if she was a Viking, she presumably kidnapped people into slavery, as was common practice. Despite the expanding evidence, we still struggle to see this person for who she really was. It doesn鈥檛 help that the stories we have about shield-maidens and Valkyries are often fetishised and reveal more about the men who wrote them than about the real lives of fighting women.
The other 19 burials are explored with a similar detail and care. Price鈥檚 achievement is to show us people who are both exactly like us and wildly different. 鈥淭he people of this Viking Age have moral codes that are emphatically not ours,鈥� he writes. They took and used slaves, routinely and seemingly without a second thought. Their raids were often shockingly ruthless, with no regard for life.
Yet they built extensive trading networks, something that requires a high degree of trust and reliability. Norse trade crossed the Atlantic and extended deep into Eurasia via the Silk Roads. The Norse were also pioneers of deliberative, loosely democratic decision-making in the forums known as 鈥渢hings鈥�.
In short, they were a mess of contradictions 鈥� like every other society.
Michael Marshall is a science writer based in Devon, UK
Three more books that cast a new light on historical societies
Martyn Whittock
Filling in one of the few gaps in Neil Price鈥檚 burials, historian Martyn Whittock explores the many claims of Norse visitors to the Americas, some backed by unimpeachable archaeology, others wildly fanciful.
Stein Ringen
How did Norse societies, famed for violent raids and reliance on slave labour, develop into today鈥檚 peaceful, democratic societies? Stein Ringen traces them through a seemingly endless sequence of brutal wars.
Alice Roberts
鈥淐elt鈥� is another ethnic label that was applied to one group of peoples by another 鈥� in this case, the Romans. Alice Roberts tries to figure out who they really were and if there were people who can usefully be labelled 鈥淐eltic鈥�.
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